Aldi Owes Store Managers Unpaid Overtime Wages, Collective Action Claims

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Aldi, Inc. is the defendant in a proposed collective action filed in Maryland by four plaintiffs who allege the discount grocery store chain failed to pay store managers rightful overtime wages.

According to the 19-page complaint, Aldi’s store managers are ostensibly responsible for supervising store operations. In truth, the plaintiffs claim, store managers “spend almost all of their time performing general labor tasks” identical to those handled by non-managerial employees. In Aldi’s chain of command, only district managers possess true managerial authority, such as hiring and firing workers and having discretion over day-to-day tasks, the suit states.

The plaintiffs claim Aldi store managers were disproportionately saddled with work and required to put in long hours as a result of understaffing. According to the case, store managers were “consistently cheated out of their wages,” receiving only their straight time hourly pay rate for time-and-a-half overtime-compensable hours each week. 

Moreover, Aldi store managers were not paid for all hours worked, per the complaint. Instead, the workers were allegedly paid only for hours reflected on their weekly schedules. From the lawsuit:

“Although they were typically scheduled to work fifty (50) hours each week, in practice, they worked far more. Working sixty (60) to seventy (70) hours each week was routine throughout their employment. There were times when they worked even more. Working these extra hours did not cause them to be paid additional wages. They were not paid at all for these additional hours worked.”